Hi everyone,
 
I have reviewed this thread over and over for the last couple months while I tried to tackle the problem on my HP DV4170us laptop. I wanted to share my experiences so hopefully they can help some of you.
 
For me, this was an intermittent problem until one day it was permanent. The USB ports were working fine, then they started acting up, and finally one day, just quit working all together. I tried just about everything imaginable in terms of a SW fix from virus scans to many things posted on this forum. I never performed an OS restore because I did not believe that was the problem at all.
 
My solution: I purchased a new motherboard on eBay for $75 and swapped mine out. This completely fixed my problem!
 
I am not sure at this time of HOW the USB ports on the motherboard went bad. Connected to my laptop are two external hard drives, optical mouse, and an M-audio FastTrack recording interface. It may have had something to do with the M-audio device, but I am not certain. I never liked the fact that the unit was USB powered. I have since purchased a powered USB hub so that it will have a separate power supply.
 
I am wondering, how many of you with the USB problem have experienced other problems as well. I am particularly interested in the people who have had luck simply taking out the battery for 30 mins. For myself, I had also noticed intermittent keyboard functionality, problems shutting down the computer, and battery charging. Lastly, when my computer first boots, the screen had a red/pink tint to it until the windows XP logo appears and then the colors were normal. Many of these problems lead me to think it is a power issue. Has anyone simply tried replacing the AC adapter and/or battery? Even though my computer is working again, my battery still doesn't charge. I would like to determine if this issue is related or not.
 
Best of luck to you all.

I have a possible workaround to try and it worked. I am running Vista 32bit, but the problem sounds essentially the same. The workaround is simple. Disconnect all usb devices. Then you must disconnect power to your computer for around 10-30 seconds thereby erasing any volatile memory on the MB. Reconnect, now reboot. After I did this the usb devices were all recognized like normal.
Here's some suggestions that did not work. Reformatting your HDD and reinstall OS. REinstalling USB controller drivers. Replacing the MB. Sending it off to be repaired. Putting in a new usb card. Doing all those trick with the registry. While I don't know the actual cause of the problem it seems it may be do to a conflict with the OS Device Manager and the hardware(USB controller). After you have it working, don't just yank out usb devices. Choose the remove hardware safely icon in system tray and actually stop the device before removing. This will likely prevent re-corrupting device drivers. Anyway, Hope it helps.

Have to be very careful about unplugging one device and then plugging in another. I fixed the problem of the unregonized device by shutting everything down and then disconnecting the power supply and then restarting - plugging the device in I wanted to use - my camera - then turning the device on and it recognized it _FINALLY_ and then I safetly removed the hardware properly and then I plugged in my Printer and then turned the printer on and then it recognized it too...I'm flying now.

Sometimes the USB ports build a static charge and malfunction. By disconnecting the power supply (when the system is shut down), hold the power button on the case down for about 10 seconds,release, then reconnect the power and start the system.
 
Folks usually recommend using the USB ports on the back of the case. This is recommended as there are a lot of systems out there that still have USB 1 ports on the front of the case and USB 2 ports on the back. The latter support newer hardware build to run on USB 2 ports.
 
The other situation is where one installs a new piece of hardware, say a printer, without un-installing the old printer drivers. The old printer drivers attempt to load and the USB connection fails, due to the old printer driver conflict.
 
And yes, switching out hardware on different ports also confuse Windows. Try to plug in your hardware into the same USB port each time.

I had a similar problem on a ~2-year-old Alienware desktop running WinXP Pro: most USB devices were working fine, but the WiFi adapter spontaneously started dropping the connection. When I tried to reset it, it seemed to become incompatible with the mouse-- that is, the mouse cursor would freeze when the WiFi was plugged in. I worked that problem a bit using some of the techniques described above in this thread, and pretty soon Windows simply refused to recognize the adapter at all, or even another one like it, even though I had tested both successfully on another machine.
 
Anyway, I grew fed up and decided to assume the problem was the USB hardware. I bought new 4-port USB PCI card for about $8 via Amazon. Problem solved in record time.
 
There are lots of cheap USB cards:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=usb+pci
 
Not much help to notebook users, I know, but if you have a PCMCIA slot, you could buy a card for that:
http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=usb+pcmcia
 
My solution was so cheap that I didn't mind giving it a shot even if the problem turned out to be OS- or driver-related. Maybe it was. But now it's working, and I'm happy.

I have a same problem but i resolved it by shut down my PC, unplug everything, do not forget unplug battery too. i think most people forget unplug the battery and then this method does not work for them. Remember unplug everything.

Did not work for me. But i figure it out eventually.
 
In my pc is a card reader who is messing with my USB hubs. If it is enabled, non of the hubs is working, constant DEVICE not recognized balloon is popping. When i disable it all of the hubs instant start to work properly.

I have been messing around with a belkin mouse that stopped working just after I decided to do the vista update for my Toshiba laptop A215-S4757 I have only had problems with my Belkin mouse every other product hooked to my laptop is made by a company that Microsoft recognizes. I have installed a Belkin wireless card before and got a message not a Microsoft compatible product but it worked anyway. Finally I got a chance to borrow a microsoft mouse and I had been playing around switching ports to get the USB mouse working again for half the day. The computer immediately recognized the Microsoft usb mouse and installed drivers for it.
 
I am not saying some people don't have actual hardware issues.
I am only posing the question how many of your problems started after and update and how many have products microsoft may not wish to take the time to make sure their software works properly with.
my usb extras
A t-mobile dash that came with with a microsft install disk.
A seagate 40gb removable hard.
for some time I thought it was the dash conflicting with the mouse, but why did the drivers install right away for the micro soft mouse and not even installing belkin drivers helped the belkin work. you tell me.

(PROBLEM) my problem is...i plugged my usb midi piano into my PC USB port.it always DID say that it wasnt recognized (when i upgradded to windows vista) but now i ran acros a gam,e thats like guitar hero but you use your piano...i HAD to try it! soo i plugged in my piano and hoped it would work (it didnt) and then i said "tah hell with it" and put my piano away and was GONNA get back to playing my games (which i use a USB port to do) i tryed plugging my microsoft wireless receiver back into my front usb port and IT DIDNT WORK D:
 
 
NOWsomething ELSE you all should know:I HAVE 6 USB PORTS____4 in the back___2 in the front___2 in the back never did work (when this PC was given to me)___and i use 2 for my mouse and KEYBORD (not piano keybord)___ i NEED atleast 3 because i use my pc for gaming for now soo its ussless as of now to me because i only play with joysticks___after doing that piano thing to my 2 front ports,they dont work any more!they ALWAYS say that the usb device is NOT recognized
 
I THINK THAT THE CAUSE OF THESE PROBLEMS ARE THE DEVICES WE PLUGG IN TO OUR USB PORTS
 

 
 
hey dude ive been reading this forum and just wanna say YOU ARE INSPIRING! i love how u didnt give up. i had my fingers crossed for you the whole time reading this thread. and was estatic to see that you actually fixed ur problem.
 
and the solution you used MAY work for me also...but i still dont understand what you mean about the USB HEADERS.ive googled "USB HEADERS" but other stuff comes up and ive done the same on youtube...i gets nuthin...but i AM happy to see that yours worked you really deserved it xD...the USB hero lol
 
*sigh* its a shame that this kinda stuff has to happen..its like microsoft DESIGNED these things to break...as they did the same for the xbox360
 
but dude ill try your method and see if it works...and if it DOES
i wont be like you and "almost cry"
ILL FRIGGIN CRY
 
*fingers crossed* wish me luck and "ILL BE BACK"
and thankx soo much for this thread its the most accurate ive come across

Go to Device Manager view devices by conection. Plug in your divice that is not recognized and find it in the list. Uninstall the unknown device and uninstall the usb rot hub and then disabel the Intrl82801G(ICH7Family)USB2Enhanced Host Coontroller - 27CC. I did this and then my flash started to use the Inel 82801G (INCH7 Family)USB Universal Host Controller - 27C8. It is slower but it works so I hope it will work for you too

This solution involves an attempt to remove old/unused USB device drivers that may be inadverdently causing conflicts with devices currently plugged in. It's basically an extreme version of the 'uninstall usb hubs in device manager' method. Download the following programs:
 
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/usb_devices_view.html
http://www.nirsoft.net/utils/device_manager_view.html
 
Run USBDeview and go into the Options menu and check the first three "Display" options. Next, shift click everything on the list, and uninstall via the File menu. Vista/Win 7 should autodetect and reinstall any drivers for USB devices plugged in automatically. If you're on XP you may need to reboot.
 
If that doesn't work, try DevManView and sort by the "Connected" column - ignore anything that says Yes in that column. Only uninstall USB related devices that are "No" in the "Connected" column. Do NOT uninstall any devices like interrupt controllers, ACPI devices, motherboard resources, or 'system' anything, or you will ruin your windows install.

[on some Windows Vista 32 set up]
 
Just registered purely to post thanks to all contributors to this thread. Easily the most useful on the issue.
 
I wanted a simple, non-technical, non-registry fiddling fix. This may not be as sustainable as tweaking with the aspi's and the asciis, but it's worked. (at least for now)
 
The simplest solution from the thread seemed to be turn off the power (and take out the laptop battery) for a while. So this is I did.
 
In my case it was about 2 hours. It might work sooner but I was doing something else. And so this timescale worked for me. So thanks. Especially to those pioneer posters (PPs? who replaced motherboards.
 
So if your usb tells you it's feeling all malfunctioned and unrecognised, maybe it's a cue for you to go and do something else for a while. Not forgetting to disconnect the power and the battery of course.
 
Btw does this problems affect desktops? I guess that would just be power down for a while then. Or Like our friends in 'The IT Crowd'[uK TV series] suggest
 
"Have you tried turning if off and on again?"
 
Thanks again community.

 
 
I have Pavilion dv 4. Two days ago my laptop without any changes to settings, no upgrades, no new software/hardware; stopped recognizing any usb device (and even DVD drive). I couldn't use my wired mouse, or printer or flashdrive. One evening everything was fine, the next morning I got a message saying "USB Device Not Recognized".
 
I did defragmentation, virus checkup, cleaned disc C (it had only 3 Gb left) just in case - no success. (I also worked with System Restore and Shut down completely 2-3 times - nothing good)
 
 
 
To cut the story short - I got the cure in the Net - Simply shut down laptop, unplug it and take the battery out for a few seconds - which I did. Praise God - everything started to work again!!!
 
 
 
The Net is full of suggestions and some of them are quite complicated, I am sure glad I didn't waste time on those for my case.

I haven't read all the pages of this post, so this may be a repeat, but i found this extremely helpful!
 
I was trying to connect my sony HDD camcorder to my work laptop. I could see the camera under disk drives in device manager, but could not see it in Windows Explorer. This also prevented the software from loading as it receives its key from the camera and the software was unable to find the camera. I discovered that the device loader had named the camera the same as one of my network hard drives. By going into disk management and renaming the drive for the camera I was able to see it and load the software.
 
Here's where I got my fix: http://www.novell.com/coolsolutions/tip/14875.html
 
Morale of the story: If you have a lot of USB and/or network drives already mapped you may need to change your drive letter in disk management.

Greetings, all! --I just found a new and working solution to this problem; one which has never been mentioned before on this forum.
 
First of all. . . I just spent a LONG time reading through this entire thread, which began back in 2006, and from what I gather, the problem is the result of one of the Microsoft Security Updates. The problem cropped up globally at the same time for hundreds of people, and since then, presumably, whenever the update installs or some variant on the update code is installs itself.
 
Without knowing that the Microsoft Security Update code was the culprit, people have been struggling and have come up with two basic tactics discussed at length in this forum and used with some limited success...
 
1) Flush the USB drivers from the system and let Windows install them again.
 
2) Waiting for the whatever information is stored to fade out when the system remains without power for 30 minutes.
 
A third solution was mentioned once a year or two ago involving uninstalling two Windows Security Updates which had presumably been interfering with USB functionality. --Though neither of those updates were on my system, probably because I was using much more recently built versions of the service packs, (SP3) so I couldn't try that.
 
Okay. So now the solution which DID work for me. . .
 
A conflict with a device driver involving Firewire and/or a network card. Disabling the 1394 and/or 1384 devices in Network Connections for many people will restore USB functionality. This can also be done through the WinXP Device Manager.
 
Please refer to the following forum thread to see a detailed discussion of this solution. . .
 
http://en.kioskea.net/forum/affich-21877-windows-xp-won-t-recognize-wd-ext-hard-drive
 
This solved it for me, and I hope it helps other people struggling with faulty USB connections.
 
Cheers and good luck!

My USB port not recognized when attach pendrive on it

As USB's seem to be recking our lives, anyone got any thoughts or suggestions on my dilemma?
 
I'll start with some history, i'm using a fairly old pc (running xp sp3) which recently got the 'antivirus 2010' virus. tried to remove it and failed. So i reset my pc back to day 1 via the system discs that came with my pc(reading this forum i needent have tried).
 
I am running a wireless set up with sky that works fine as i use it daily on my PS3.
 
My problem is that since this has been reset. I install my wireless usb dongle, and everythings fine. I also use a wireless usb keyboard and mouse and these are fine too. But as soon as i try to connect an external hard drive or printer via any other usb port. it throws out my wireless internet dongle, then every time i try to reconnect it, it says that 'cannot recognise usb device', this happens on any of my usb ports, regardless of the printer or hard drive still being connected or not, but the keyboard and mouse still work fine?
 
The external hard drive and wireless dongle are brand new, i bought a new wireless dongle thinking it was that. The only way i can then get the internet to work again is via system recovery, regardless of what usb port i move it to. As system restore doesn't resolve it. but as you know i have to then start again reinstalling all my service packs.
I have tried reinstalling the software for the wireless usb device, this doesn't help unless i do a system recovery. Also if i put the external hard drive or wireless keyboard/mouse into the usb port that the wireless device was in, they work fine.
All the usb ports i am trying are the standard ones built in to my tower. Is there an easy way to resolve this? Or is it time fr a new pc? Please help i'm going crazy with no pc and having to do everything through the PS3. The browser is rubbish

Hallelujah, I have been cured!!!
 
First, my situation. About 5 days ago "the message" balloon started showing up suddenly. I hadn't used any of my external USB ports for at least as few days prior.
 
My machine: HP Pavilion DV6910us, Vista Home Premium w/SP2.
 
I found this thread, starting on about page 4. So, I started at the beginning. In retrospect, the answer that worked for me was about half way through the pages. Why do I never learn? Start at the end of a troubleshooting thread and work backwards. Duh!!! That's typically where you'll find resolutions, assuming they've been discovered.
 
I had tried: reflashing my BIOS, deleting/restacking all my USB devices under Device Manager, registry hack for DisableSelectiveSuspend. Zip. Nada. Nothing worked.
 
As so many of the more recent posts have noted, the answer turned out to be the SIMPLE answer. However, I ALMOST blew it. I turned off my laptop, and unplugged for at least a half hour. Turned it back on and STILL had the problem. So, I THOUGHT that wasn't the answer. Yes, I missed a CRITICAL step.
 
Look at all the recent posts to note that the MOST IMPORTANT part of this process is to REMOVE THE BATTERY while it is powered off and unplugged!!! In my case I shut down, unplugged and removed the battery. Then, I left it that way overnight. I suspect those who say 30 minutes is enough may be correct.
 
One final note. This morning I put the battery back in, but didn't plug it back in until I reached the Vista login screen. Yes. I did receive the dreaded "message balloon" one last time after my desktop came up. I believe that's when Vista "fixed" itself and was able to properly install the driver for the "unknown device". I haven't seen the error since, and I've rebooted again. I am convinced the problem is gone.
 
Make certain you try this extemely simple procedure before you end up replacing your motherboard. Save some $$$!!!!
 
Thanks go to all of you who posted this same content. May everyone's answer be this easy! I leave this thread "at peace" with the world...and Microsoft too! ;-}

Well, basically what I did is follow the instructions that is listed in the link I gave before. And it actually worked when I followed the instructions EXACTLY as they were written.
 
But at the time of this writing, I am once again having the same problems I described above. Its like my system relapsed. The only difference is this time the above instructions are NOT working. I can't figure it out. I'm really afraid to format because I've read that it doesn't seem to solve the problem.
 
It seems that at this point, nothing I'm doing is working. I think I have managed to find the source of the problem this time though. It seems to happen only after using my Samsung Yepp' MP3 player. My USB ports were working fine (after I fixed them) until I pluged in my said MP3 player, then the following day, the USB troulbes came back. This time I can't fix them...
 
So if anyone has any information about this, I would love to get this fixed again too.... Sorry I couldn't be more of a help Clueless, but I'm once again in the same position you are <img src="https://www.ntcompatible.com/public/style_emoticons/default/frown.gif" alt="frown" title="frown" height="15" width="15" />

 
I have a novel idea, let's all got to Mac's. I've been having this issue on and off for 2 months. It's really starting to peeve me way off. I can't connect to the internet because....I only have a USB wireless adaptor and my modem is in another room on another computer so I'm stuck. To be very honest, I think I'm going to sell my computer and get an Mac. They never have these dumb issues. I've done a system restore, reinstalled the motherboard chipset disk, removed and programs installed before I recieved this problem, tried multiple usb devices and only one works...the freaking USB mouse. This sucks major.

here is the solution (USB Device Not Recognized (Malfunction))
 
the steps which i followed are as :
1. in "human interface devices" under device manager. i disabled it. my usb mouse has already plugged in and its showing yellow color symbol in "human interface devices".
2. unplugged usb mouse.
3. plugged in usb mouse.
4. enable it.
your done!!!!
 
its worked for me but don't know how long it makes me happy. i hope it won't come again otherwise i'll screwed up.
hope this easy troubleshooting will also help u too.